SECOND BLOCADE PROTESTING BOWATER OPERATIONS
by Tamarack Friday, Oct. 07, 2005 at 2:25 PM

***A blockade to protest logging. ***Tuesday October 11, 2006. ***Fitchie Lake, off Hwy 599, 30 miles north of Savant Lake. ***Mishkeegogamang and Saugeen First Nations; Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) and the Boreal Forest Network (BFN). ***TBAY EMAIL CONTACT: meshkekotek@hotmail.com

SECOND BLOCADE PROTESTING BOWATER OPERATIONS

A blockade to protest Bowater’s logging operations on First Nations traditional trap lines is set for Tuesday October 11, 2006 in the Pickle Lake area near Fitchie Lake, off Hwy 599, 30 miles North of Savant Lake.

Events leading up to the blockade include a week long Youth and Elders Gathering, a Health Fair and wild rice ceremony to teach traditional and cultural values of the Anishnawbe way of life on traditional lands. Those planning to attend include representatives of the Mishkeegogamang and Saugeen First Nations; and reporters from the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN) and the Boreal Forest Network (BFN).

Earlier this week, Bowater’s Aboriginal Issues representative informed blockade organizer Hazel Skunk, that the company was scheduled to begin cutting on her traditional trap line on October 11th, following the Thanksgiving long weekend. The blockade is aimed at protecting the traditional territories, trap lines and Anishnawbe way of life currently under attack by the proposed development plans of both the federal and provincial governments.

In a news release last April, Skunk pointed to the St. Raphael Signature Site southwest of Pickle Lake, a proposed logging operation and clear cut site which she says “infringes upon traditional lands’, trap-lines and sacred burial grounds of the Mishkeegogamang and Saugeen First Nations. Contrary to MNR claims, Skunk said that First Nations were not properly consulted nor invited to be part of the planning process for these lands.

The proposed operations which include mineral and timber extractions, set to endure over the 100 year period 1997-2097, will endanger the quality of life for current and future generations. These are some of northern Ontario’s last old growth forests, in particular old growth birch, on which the traditional Anishnawbe way of life depends. Our children and grandchildren depend on clean air, clean water, clean soil and healthy forests.

For more information contact:
- BFN (reporter Thor Aitkenhed at 204-947-3081 or michelle@borealnet.org)
- Thunder Bay liaison: meshkekotek@hotmail.com
- visit http://www.friendsofgrassynarrows.com, and http://www.aptn.ca

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